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This Body

the sensation of prayer

Julian

Julian Maddock

My name is Julian Maddock.
In my life I have always and repeatedly come back to a wish to be with God. It is a fundamental driving force in my life. I have not always been good at following this wish but it hasn't let me go and has become the energy that is at the core of my work.

In addition to what I offer here, I am a part-time Hospital Chaplain and run a small Web Design business.

Get in touch with me or see the contact details at the bottom of the page.

The Work

“My job is not to solve people's problems or make them happy, but to help them see the grace operating in their lives.” Eugene Peterson p.5

The spiritual journey is the coming home to God at the heart of everything – and at our own “deep heart’s core”. We can realise this in our lives and feel it in our bodies.

I want people to be released into a positive, trusting, life-affirming experience of God and themselves. I work with starting, encouraging and deepening a relationship with God, and in the life and sense of vocation that follows. I am interested in the practicalities of what facilitates this relationship, especially the sense of God felt in the body.

These are key elements that fire me up and are central to the work.

God
Authentic spirituality starts with being loved and desired by what is massively beyond us, and yet which pervades us. Strictly speaking this is unnameable but I use the name God. God desires and loves us unconditionally. Any religion or spirituality that does not start from this simple premise is fundamentally flawed.
Desire
Perhaps all we have to do is let ourselves be loved, to be the objects of God's desire. Within this gaze I come to know who I am and what I really, really, really want.
Vocation
Everyone, every being, has a purpose that can be found within the love and desire of God for our lives. Finding and clarifying this purpose gives direction and energy to our lives.
Shaping
Spirituality is about how we are shaped by life and how we shape a life out of who we are (identity), what we truly want (desire) and our purpose (vocation). It is choosing daily to live these truths.
This Body
This body is the locus of the divine-human meeting. My contention is that through kindly attention to the sensations of this body we can connect into a process of ever-deepening immersion into the reality of God at our centre and at the centre of life. I use the couplet ‘this body’ to try to indicate that there is not an I that is in or that has a body, but rather that this body is me and is distinct but not separate from God.

I am still learning, and being taught, to realise God and to love.

Schedule

I have a degree of flexibility in my schedule. Below is a typical week. Much can be rearranged to accommodate requests.

Monday
Spiritual Direction & Supervision
Tuesday
West Middlesex Hospital
Wednesday
West Middlesex Hospital
Thursday (in term time)
Ignatian Spirituality Course
Friday
Spiritual Direction & Supervision
Weekend
Available for courses & retreats

Diary

Ignatian Spirituality Course
Start of academic year
28, 29 & 30 Sept 2010
Retreat Association: Consultation
Offa House
12-13 Oct 2010
Training Day: This Body: the sensation of prayer
Diocese of Guildford: Spiritual Directors Forum
22 Jan 2011
Sexuality and
Spiritual Direction
Gloucestershire Spiritual Direction Course
5 Mar 2011
Good Practice in
Spiritual Direction
Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich: Spiritual Directors Forum
19 Mar 2011
Consultion of Ignatian training courses
Loyola Hall
8-9 May 2011